Media Aye News Bureau: A special court recently allowed an Enforcement Directorate (ED) plea seeking issuance of Letters Rogatory (LRs) to six countries in order to gain more information about the overseas businesses and assets of PNB fraud case key accused Nirav Modi..

Judge MS Azmi permitted the ED application after hearing the arguments of special public prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar and asserted, “The application is allowed.”

The ED, in its plea before the court, sought the issuance of LR under the PMLA for recovery/seizure of proceeds of crime and collection of documents, evidence in other countries that are vital in the investigation. It said, “He spread his business operations in various countries, including Hong Kong, USA, UK, UAE, South Africa and Singapore. He had apparently got issued multiple high-value Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) in favour of his firms/ companies from Punjab National Bank which resulted in the disbursement of funds as per the SWIFT messages sent by PNB. It was later found by the bank that the same were issued fraudulently since there was no record of the said LoUs in the bank's records.”

The application further stated that, “Certain part of the proceeds of crime involved in money laundering are reasonably believed to be parked in (countries abroad).”